Everyone, it seems, is really very sorry about how the international tax scandal has played out at PwC Australia.
Current chief executive Kevin Burrowes, imported from the financial services giant in the UK via Singapore to sort the Antipodean mess, is sorry.
So is Melbourne powerbroker Luke Sayers, the former PwC boss and now chair of his own eponymously named lucrative consultancy shop.
But only a few “bad actors” are accountable for the crisis, no matter the pear-shaped culture at PwC that allowed such a scandal to unfold.
Burrowes and Sayers were (finally) before a Richard Colbeck-chaired Senate hearing into government use of consultants on Thursday, with the senator and his key committee members Barbara Pocock from the Greens and Deborah O’Neill from the ALP out for blood from the start.
Sit where you like, indicated Colbeck to Sayers as he entered, which chair didn’t matter, the committee’s coming after you regardless. But respective apologies were where any similarity in approaches from Burrowes, boss since July, and Sayers, boss from 2012 to 2020, ended.
Sayers, we hear, was heavily prepped for his grilling by some of the best in the business. No surprise to learn that his legal representative Leon Zwier, senior partner at Arnold Bloch Leibler, was key to his client’s assured and commanding performance.
Also assisting Sayers in the lead-up to Thursday was media consultant Sharon McCrohan, who was a senior adviser to former Victorian Labor premiers Steve Bracks and John Brumby. McCrohan, who is also a non-executive director of the Transport Accident Commission and Racing Victoria, did not respond to Margin Call’s inquiries.
Sayers repeatedly pushed back on questions and assertions from Pocock and O’Neill. “Senator, this is a respectful place,” the businessman scowled at the Red House big-game hunters.
Burrowes, in contrast, seemed less prepped, less confident and less across the material, which did not go unnoticed by his inquisitors.
“You need to come to the Senate prepared to answer questions,” a frustrated O’Neill declared. And later, “(there is a) failure to be able to answer these questions today”.
Burrowes was forced to lean heavily on his accompanying back-up singers, head of risk and ethics Jan McCahey and chief people officer Catherine Walsh, both of whom have been in their roles also only since July.
We’d put money on Burrowes being recalled to have another crack at (hopefully) answering the committee’s questions.
Friends in high places
Luke Sayers has a lot of good friends. On Thursday we heard much about Josh and Amie Frydenberg who – unlike half the rest of monied Melbourne – don’t have equity in Sayers Group.
The boss confirmed to Deborah O’Neill that as we told you earlier in the week the likes of Mathias Cormann and Russel Howcroft are equity holders in Sayers, but he assured the Senate he had never leveraged any of his relationships while at PwC to benefit the firm.
Frydenberg and Sayers are fellow Carlton supporters, with the ex-treasurer a former No.1 ticket holder at the AFL club, which Sayers still chairs.
The committee’s concern about Sayers’ governance while running PwC and the willingness of Burrowes to throw Sayers and another former boss, Tom Seymour, under the bus must surely hit the radar of the AFL sometime soon.
“Both of these individuals appear to have let the firm down,” Burrows told the senators on Thursday.
We remember ex-NAB boss Andrew Thorburn was forced to step away from his appointment as the new boss of Essendon due to his association with controversial church City on A Hill.
And he had God on his side.
Costly withdrawal
The end of the love affair between former Bank of Queensland chairman and now boss Patrick Allaway and the chief executive he sacked at the end of last year, George Frazis, has cost Frazis dearly.
The regional bank’s annual report for 2023 was released on Thursday, revealing the financial cost to the former Westpac exec, who led BOQ for three years and three months before being ousted by Allaway in November last year.
The report reveals that Frazis, who famously had his own personal loo installed in his executive office, was fortunate enough to receive $1.3m in termination benefits.
He also enjoyed nine months gardening leave, which is now over, with Frazis yet to re-emerge in the banking arena.
But time in the shade pales when compared with what Frazis was forced to leave on the table due to his departure – no less than $3m in prior year’s equity that may have vested had he been allowed to stay on in the top job. Ouch.
A new endeavour
The boardroom battle unfolding at retail booze, pub and pokies house Endeavour Group between director nominee Bill Wavish, in for billionaire shareholder Bruce Mathieson, and chairman Peter Hearl looks to have exposed a few holes in the spun-off group’s operations.
Endeavour hasn’t been out of the news in recent weeks as it defends Endeavour’s performance and strategy under boss Steve Donohue from 15 per cent shareholder Mathieson, whose son Bruce Jr is already on the board.
Communications boss Lizzy Bold, who at one time worked for former member for Wentworth Malcolm Turnbull before he rose to run the country, has been earning her wage since the Endeavour stoush started.
But now the group has called for reinforcements, this week seeking to recruit fresh PR blood to at least help control the message.
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